A large trough, some twelve or fourteen feet long, six or eight wide, and perhaps four deep (we simply use our Yankee privilege of guessing at the dimensions), and lined with tin, was placed in the middle of the room, where the curd for “skimmed cheese,” made from milk after all the cream was removed, was “set.” This and the churning arrangements occupied half the building. The other half was a large tank, through which the water from the brook flowed continually. Into this reservoir, always full, tall tin cans, between two or three feet high, and perhaps a foot across, were set. Little danger that milk in that cool bed would sour before all the cream had been risen. About this tank ran a wide shelf or ledge, on which stood great tubs of golden butter waiting to be sent to market.
In the second story, equally cool and clean, large shelves were placed, where the cheeses are kept to dry, or ripen, entirely separate from the butter.
This is a very tame description of a scene of labor which was to us exceedingly interesting. We must now hasten to speak of that which is real care and labor,—the management of small dairies, where butter is only made for home consumption.
The most scrupulous cleanliness must be recognized as being absolutely indispensable. If all else is done to perfection, and that is wanting, you cannot have good butter. As you skim one mess, be sure that the shelf on which it stood is faithfully scrubbed and left unoccupied until it becomes dry. Every utensil used about milk or cream should be kept for this, and drafted into no other service. Many object to using soap in washing milk-pans, pails, etc. But we have great affection and reverence for soap, and cannot imagine that its free use can harm any article employed about a dairy. We always insist that the pails, pans, skimmers, butter-prints, and churn be washed in very hot suds; if a servant fears to risk her hands, we use our own. A small, pointed scrub-brush must be used to scour the seams, corners, handles, etc., of all the utensils, and particularly the strainers in the pails. After this scrubbing is well done, rinse in an abundance of hot water, and then pour over all a large kettle of boiling water. Let the articles stand in this a short time, then wipe with clean towels, and turn down on a stand or shelf prepared for them outdoors, where the sun will sweeten them perfectly. Even in rainy days, better leave them out an hour or two that they may have the benefit of the air at least, if deprived of sun; then wipe them dry, and bring into the milk-room before night.
A small unpainted tub should be kept expressly to wash milk things in. The brush, wash-cloths, and drying towels ought all to be marked, and never used for any other purpose. See that they are washed, scalded, and hung to dry, outdoors if possible, every time they are used.
If the milk-room or cellar is small and not ventilated, it is very difficult in July and August to keep milk sweet long enough for all the cream to rise. While the weather is very hot, unless one has a deep, cold cellar, or a spring of water running through it, it is well to scald the milk when first brought in. Have a kettle half full of boiling water over the fire; strain the milk into a clean pail, and set it into the boiling water until it gets scalding hot, but not boiling. Be sure and remove it before it rises in wrinkles on top. If too hot, the butter will have a disagreeable taste. The butter is never quite as good, but the cream rises more rapidly, before the milk has time to change,—a very important gain, and one to be considered in case of a small cellar.
In very warm weather, with no more protection than is generally found in small dairies, it is not often possible to keep milk over twenty-four hours before skimming. Every minute the cream remains on the milk, after it changes, is an injury to the butter. Thirty-six hours is the proper time for milk to stand, when the weather is cool enough to keep it sweet. Some keep it forty-eight hours, on the plea that more butter is secured. We doubt if it is so; but whatever is gained in quantity, by keeping milk so long unskimmed, is certainly lost in quality. Many think it important to keep the cream till ripe, or sour, before churning. We think it a mistake, if good, sweet butter is the thing sought. In cool weather we churn when the cream is as sweet as that which is used for coffee. In July and August the cream will sour, and the flavor of the butter shows the difference. As soon as the butter “comes,” it must be well washed down from the sides of the churn, and gathered into a mass. If very warm, wash a piece of ice and put it into the churn, leaving the butter five or ten minutes to harden before putting it into the “butter-bowl,” which, with the butter-ladle and churn, should have been kept full of cold water all night. When the butter is firm enough to work over, take it into the bowl and throw in a handful of salt; we fancy it causes the buttermilk to run off more easily; work out all the buttermilk as gently as possible; too much working or rough handling injures the grain of the butter. This done, pour in ice-water; wash the butter through that; pour off, and add more, till the water runs clear. Twice washing, in a generous quantity, should be sufficient. Then taste, and see how much more salt is needed. After the washing, press the butter with the ladle till no water runs; toss it into a compact roll, cover with a clean linen cloth, and put into the ice-chest till next morning, when it must be again broken up, worked over, and packed into a butter-pail or jar, pounded down compactly, and covered with strong brine, in which pulverized saltpetre—a great spoonful to four quarts of brine—has been dissolved. Cover the jar or pail closely, and set in the ice-chest or a cool place.
This method will insure good butter the year round. It is the buttermilk left in most of our market butter that gives us so much poor butter. If that remains, no brine or care can make it sweet.
The Blanchard Churn is, we think, one of the safest and most convenient, as the washing, salting, and working can be almost entirely done in the churn, by turning the wings, or dasher, back and forth half-way,—pressing out the buttermilk and salting it more evenly and with far less fatigue.